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Home Blog Health systems and Health equity The real costs of cutting refugee health benefits are coming

Steve Barnes

The real costs of cutting refugee health benefits are coming

Canada is now just a few days away from cutting health benefits for refugees. The cuts will substantially reduce, and in some cases completely eliminate, access to health care for refugees.

The opposition to these cuts amongst health providers has been comprehensive. Dozens of leading professional groups have spoken out against these cuts, including the Canadian Network of Public Health Associations, College of Family Physicians of Canada, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Canadian Association of Social Workers, Canadian Medical Association, Canadian Nurses Association, Canadian Association of Community Health Centres, Canadian Association of Midwives, and Ontario’s Council of Medical Officers of Health.

In our health equity impact assessment of the cuts, The Real Cost of Cutting Refugee Health Benefits, we demonstrated that the consequences of cuts to the Interim Federal Health Program are unfair, inequitable, and totally predictable:

  • Accessing even basic health care services will be difficult for all refugees;
  • Refugees will be forced to delay or forgo care, which will negatively impact their health;
  • Increased numbers of refugees will be forced to use emergency rooms for reasons that could have been avoided; and
  • Women and children will be particularly negatively affected, especially in cases of abuse.

Doctors have announced that they will keep records of any negative outcomes for patients that are due to cuts to the Interim Federal Health Program.

Provinces and Territories will be left to pick up the bill for these avoidable medical costs. The current Interim Federal Health Program cost the federal government $84.6 million in 2010/11. This is a mere 0.04 percent – less than one tenth of one percent – of the government’s program spending. For Provinces and Territories, the costs of picking up untreated health problems will far exceed this false saving.

Policy issues are often complex. This is not: the adverse and inequitable impact of these cuts is entirely predictable – and avoidable.

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Steve Barnes

Steve Barnes

Steve Barnes was the Director of Policy at the Wellesley Institute 2015-2016, and a Policy Advisor 2010-2015. He holds a MA in political science from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and has published on political leadership and political socialization. Prior to joining the Wellesley Institute Steve worked as a policy advisor for the Government of Ontario. He has also held positions in the New Zealand public sector and at Victoria University. Steve’s policy interests include understanding how policy decisions made outside of the health sphere affect health outcomes and creating policy solutions that address unequal and unfair health outcomes. steveb_ON

Acknowledgement of Traditional Land

We wish to acknowledge this land on which the Wellesley Institute operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.

Revised by the Ceremonial Committee at the University of Toronto Office of Indigenous Initiatives in April 2021.